Sheriff Benton  (by: Preston H. Colby  -   10/30/2009)

I strongly agree with Mr. McGehee. Remember it was tax evasion not unlawful liquor sales that took down Al Capone... follow the money.... Regards... PHC

Drug Laws/Prohibition  (by: mbaker  -   10/28/2009)

I don't think your going to convince taxpayers to give out heroin/cocaine for free, but maybe for whatever it cost the taxpayer. Syringes are cheap and can be given out free with very little expense to the taxpayer and do a great deal in the prevention and reduction of AIDS and hepatitous. The clinics could also be easily be set up if the new Health Care bill is put in place. Of course, that is a matter of getting it by the Republicans, who only know the word 'no' and can'nt offer any other solutions. There is no question the cost to society that drugs cost us all, not just in law inforcement and crime, but also in health care cost which we all incurr, whether we know it or not. The Swiss have a radical solution to our traditional way of thinking that the Republicans again would think as another step towards communism. It is shame we can not look outside of the box to new approaches, instead of relying on the same methods that continue to cost taxpayers and continue to fail. If we used that money diferently instead of our traditional method of using law enforcement we might be able to turn the results around. Our religious leaders and those in law enforcement are the groupes that need to form an alliance to educate the public on the need to change. Both groups, except a small minority in each organization, seem to be content to keep things the way they are. Our religious leaders, in particular, are the ones that need to start the movement by forming a committee that would then recruite the law enforcement organizations, is how it most likely would be successful.

Drug Laws / Prohibition  (by: jsknow  -   10/28/2009)

Because of our prohibition policy bad laws have been put on the books that make it illegal for IV drug users to obtain clean needles. This results in AIDS and hepatitis being spread unnecessarily into our non drug using society on a huge scale. Now take a look at the way the Swiss have dealt with their heroin problem. You can watch a lot about this in the video titled “Jack Cole Interview” on the JSK site. In Switzerland they set up government run clinics where heroin addicts can go and get pharmaceutical grade heroin. If you don’t have the money to pay for the drug it’s free. That instantly put every illegal heroin dealer in that country out of business… they can’t compete with free. Anyone that wants heroin can go into a government run clinic up to 3 times a day and inject it. There are medical personnel on hand and anyone that wants to kick their habit is given counseling and help toward that goal. The results are that there has not been a single heroin overdose there in more than 13 years. Switzerland has the lowest AIDS and Hepatitis infection in all of Europe. Crime fell by 60% because no one is stealing or prostituting their self to pay for their heroin and after a 10 year study, they documented that there has been an 82% decline in new heroin users. Now please tell me why our drug war seems like a better policy than that. No one went to jail and no one got killed. This program is also far less expensive than what we are doing and far less harmful. Drug addiction of all types should be handled as a medical problem not a criminal problem. If a person kills or drives when they are too intoxicated to do so or breaks any legitimate law, we already have laws on the books to deal with those problems and if a real danger to society is recognized like it was with drunk driving, then those laws certainly should be adjusted accordingly. Trying to lock up every drug user or eradicate every plant that produces illegal drugs from planet earth are completely unattainable goals. We simply cannot afford to lock up every drug user and even if we could the vast majority go back to using drugs when they are released. Some countries even went so far as to execute drug users and even that has not succeeded. At some point we have to realize that a certain percentage of people are always going to use drugs and implement policy that minimizes the harms without devastating society. Most drugs are made from weeds that without prohibition would be of far less financial value. According to a fairly recent documentary by Walter Cronkite, all the plants needed to supply an entire year’s worth of the heroin consumed in the US could be grown on about 50 square miles almost anywhere on earth and the entire years worth of heroin could be transported in a single cargo plane. Doesn’t it make more sense to have doctors treat the addicts than to try and stop the heroin production? It has to because law enforcement has only been able to prevent the production or transportation of about 10% of the heroin according to their own statistics. Despite the drug war and all the money and efforts that have been put into it, drugs today are more potent, more readily available and often less expensive than they were when Richard Nixon started the modern war on drugs. If you can show me ANYTHING that the drug war has accomplished when it comes to reducing drug related death, disease, crime or addiction that has significantly improved any drug related area over a long period of time I’d appreciate you telling me what it is. Let's compare the results of two roughly comparable major cities which both have a drug problem. The cities are New York, and Liverpool, England. In New York, heroin and cocaine addicts suffer from tremendous medical problems. In Liverpool, England, most heroin and cocaine addicts suffer few medical problems. In New York, most drug addicts are unemployed criminals. In Liverpool, most drug addicts are gainfully employed taxpayers. In New York, crime committed by drug addicts is a major problem. In Liverpool, it is a very minor problem. In New York, drug addicts often have their children taken away and live under miserable conditions. In Liverpool, most addicts live with their families in stable homes and manage to raise healthy, well-adjusted children. In New York, thousands of babies are permanently damaged every year by their mother's drug use. In Liverpool, health authorities report no cases of harm to infants as a result of their mother's drug use. In New York, sixty percent of all intravenous drug users are infected with AIDS, and they are a major cause of the spread of AIDS. In Liverpool, only one percent of the intravenous drug users are infected with AIDS and they are a very minor source of infection for the rest of the population. In the United States, drug use is illegal and the police hunt down drug users to throw them in prison. Four thousand people died from illegal drugs in the US last year and we now have more than 600,000 people in prison on drug charges. In Liverpool, England, the police do not arrest drug users any more. Instead, health care workers seek them out and encourage them to come in for counseling and medical treatment. Both counseling and medical treatment are provided on demand. The medical treatment often includes maintenance doses of narcotics under the management of a physician. Liverpool, England, has adopted the same approach as the Netherlands and has had substantially the same results. They both chose decriminalization. Sources for this article date back to December 27, 1992. Although the information is somewhat behind the times, the message remains the same. www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax11.htm The Constitutional right to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and others have been denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war. More information about drug laws from Just Say Know: Using Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home With All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html

  (by: elchupacabra  -   10/28/2009)

pfff..dumb Cubans think they can come to Highlands County and run game.. Don't think so!!!

Creative thinking  (by: Paul McGehee  -   10/27/2009)

Congratulations to Sheriff Benton and her administration for not accepting a "nothing we can do" attitude toward the property owners of these marijuana grow houses. It has been easy, until now, for a property owner to duck accountability by claiming no knowledge of what their "tenant" was doing. Mortgage fraud is a brilliant angle from which to strike. Way to go, Sheriff Benton!